Chapter 15 - Return to Hawthorne Lane
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The revelation hung in the air like a heavy mist.
Evelyn Bennett hadn't just accidentally become my mother-in-law. Her son hadn't just randomly met me at a coffee shop. The entire relationship had been built on a generational secret.
“We need to go to the house,” Sarah declared firmly. “If there’s a hidden compartment behind the garage workbench, we need to secure whatever is inside it before Julian’s defense team tries to claim the property.”
An hour later, under police escort, Sarah, Detective Hale, and I arrived at the house on Hawthorne Lane.
Standing on the front sidewalk, looking at the two-story brick home, a wave of cold anxiety washed over me. This was where I had been burned. This was where my nightmare had occurred.
“You don't have to go inside, Elena,” Sarah said gently, touching my arm.
“No,” I said, lifting my head high. “I need to face it.”
We walked around the side of the house directly into the garage, bypassing the kitchen entirely.
The garage smelled of cedar dust and old tools, preserved exactly as my father had left it. Detective Hale walked over to the heavy wooden workbench against the back wall. He shined his flashlight behind the metal pegboard cabinet.
Sure enough, two screws holding the cabinet to the wall had been recently loosened.
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Detective Hale pulled a screwdriver from his kit, removed the remaining screws, and pulled the pegboard cabinet away from the wall.
Behind it, set deep into the brickwork, was a small, square steel panel.
